ICE

Carroll High School has been designing clubs, facilities, programs and organizations since its establishment in 1969. Throughout the years, the school has been providing new opportunities for its students, doing ultimately what a high school does best – preparing students for the future.

The ICE (Interdisciplinary Cooperative Education) Program is a program here at Carroll that gives students the opportunity to leave school for one half of the day and explore a career of some variant. The career could be associated with something the student would like to do in the future, according to Ryan Taylor, the ICE Program coordinator for about ten years.

“I just really think the program is neat,” Taylor said. “It allows kids to start that transition from high school to the real world; it gives them the opportunity to explore and see what a career is really like.”

According to Taylor, the program essentially takes the responsibility of a job. This primarily means that students who apply for a position get paid and have to have taxes taken out of their paychecks, as a normal job entails.

With as many students as there are in the Carroll system, it is hard to anticipate how many actually sign up for the program. Taylor, in fact, said he expects at least 130 students each year, but the participants vary, as well as the industries that admit students per semester.

“We have students that do the ICE Program in a variety of different areas,” Taylor said.

Some students explore careers in retail or office work, others in the food service, such as the local Moe’s just off of Lima Road. Normally, a lot of the careers are entry level, Taylor acknowledged, but some require a bit more concentration and time. This year especially, one student even had the opportunity to work with mechanics.

Thankfully, though, students typically do not return to the school day in clothes caked with grease and smelling of rust, as most of them leave just after the dismissal bell for fourth on a required average of 15 hours a week.

“Some of my students will work five days a week,” Taylor said. “Monday through Friday.”

While the program offers many employable careers, it does not actually entertain the idea of teaching. In fact, Taylor also mentioned that the program differs quite drastically from that of the Cadet Teaching, where students get the chance to teach but do not get paid for the amount of time they put in. Similarly, Taylor said that the Cadet Teaching program is for those students who know they would like to pursue a career in education, whereas the ICE Program allows the students to decide if teaching or another career is truly something they would be interested in.

All career programs offered at Carroll can benefit a student immensely; however, a good thing to keep in mind with each separate program are the responsibilities placed on a student’s shoulders during the time of application.

“They [students] have to fill out an application form,” Taylor said. “Some of the things we’re looking for are individuals that have good attendance records, that have decent grades. We are also looking for teacher recommendations.”

A meeting for juniors on information about the ICE Program is scheduled for the fall in the large auditorium.